Professors warn: German welcome culture is over, people focus on resistance and national identity

Two professors have warned for the future as more Germans are ‘radicalising’ and the welcome culture is over.

The professors made their statement after the vehicular attacks on migrants in Bottrop and Essen on New Year’s Day by a radicalised German citizen.

Professor in criminology Hans-Dieter Schwind warned that “the welcome culture in Germany is over”. According to Schwind the attack, that injured eight people, can be ‘related’ to the fact that Germans see migration increasingly as a threat.

“People are seething, and then suddenly there is an outbreak. This is a dangerous development,” the criminologist says.

Schwind himself had expected such a case much earlier. Amok rides like those in Bottrop and the attacks on refugee shelters in recent months are just the extreme tip of a more general development and he worries that this will continue.

Professor Andreas Zick, a conflict and violence researcher, says that people from the middle of society are increasingly radicalised. People who previously had no connection to right-wing extremist ideology.

The culprit had certainly been on the Internet before his amok ride and was infected by a movement that believes that the country is alienated and the policy proves a loss of control.

“There is a growing mood in the population that speaks of national identity, resistance and control that you need to take back into your own hands. This self-empowerment of the citizens worries me very much,” he says.